Valerie Williams is legend in the Iowa dance community. As a dancer and choreographer, she set her own vision for what she wanted to do, and she has done just that, consistently, for over 20 years. As a kid growing up in Ames in the early 80’s you probably participated in one of Valerie’s dance in the schools movement activities. Armed only with a drum, Valerie would introduce rhythmic movement with a strong dose of Dalcroze eurhythmics walking to the beat, moving high, moving low, becoming like a lion or a snake in the jungle, flowing like water.
Valerie has not just worked with kids in a school or camp setting. In New York, while sitting in on open rehearsals of the Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane dance company she proved her ability to follow and coach choreography. In one conversation with Valerie I asked her how she began working for Bill T. Jones.
“Well, I was sitting in one of the rehearsals and Bill did a movement and he said, ‘What did I just do?’ The dancers were focused on their parts so I said, ‘You took your right arm around, behind your head while standing on your left leg and lunged down stage right onto your right foot while extending your hand in line with your right leg…’ and he said ‘show me,’ and over time I proved my ability to observe and recreate movement. He invited me to be his rehearsal director.”
Valerie worked on several international pieces, rehearsal directing Love Defined for the Lyon Opera Ballet in 1992 and , 24 Images/Seconde in 1995. She set choreography of the divine liturgy in Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land and served as international rehearsal director.
One of Valerie’s long standing projects has been Women in Motion, a collaboration between professional and non professional dancers to create a piece of new work each summer under Valerie’s creative and choreographic vision. What is wonderful about Valerie’s approach, and what is so unassumingly groundbreaking about her work in the middle of cornfield Iowa, is her capacity for creating choreography with people from the height of technical ability to new movers – people who have never previously set foot on a dance stage.
Sunday was the opening day for rehearsals for the 2020 season, and I was able to be there with my camera to capture footage for a documentary “Where Dances Come From” which will follow Valerie Williams and two other choreographer/dance groups in Iowa throughout 2020. I’ll be capturing the creative process as well as interviewing dancers to explore the many reasons people become involved with and practice dance as an art form.
Come back here to follow the process as I get to know this performance, and also, please visit my fundraiser. Funds go directly to the cost of production and I will post updates there as well.